D&D 4E Have you ever run 4e using just Essentials?

[bert1001 fka bert1000]

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My parties when using the older books used rituals all the time. Rituals were actually pretty sweet. They needed more of them though.

Rituals were kind of bolted on to 4e which is a real shame.

 

[bert1001 fka bert1000]

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My parties when using the older books used rituals all the time. Rituals were actually pretty sweet. They needed more of them though.

Whoops. Posted before finished.

Rituals were an amazing part of 4e that were underutilized. They should have been front and center.

There were not enough in the PHB but by the end of 4e there were rituals for 99% of the traditional 3e non combat utility spells.

If I played 4e again, I would lean into Rituals more. Here's how I would do it:

*Split the Rituals into Arcane, Divine, Primal lists (some work). Ritual classes only get access to 1 list (Wizard = Arcane, etc). Ritual feat only gives you access to 1 list.

* Give the traditional full utility casters (Wizard, Cleric, etc) free scaling rituals per day with "Rituals cast" per day progression like 3e spells but much lower. So maybe by 10th you can cast 1 free ritual per day at Level or lower, 1 free up to Level -2, and 2 free Level -4.

Rituals felt tacked on but could have been front and center for exploration / non combat to bring back a lot of the "creative magic". The difference is that 4e made rituals into more of a party resource, could be gained by anyone with a feat, and the stark line between combat and non combat made it less of a big deal that someone could do these things.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

After a long pause, I was finally able to get back to some personal projects I had started early last year. The goal was to create a suite of modules that will allow me to run a streamlined version of 4th edition D&D on Fantasy Grounds. I am pleased to announce that I have completed one of the cornerstone pieces: Essential Heroes.

​

Essential Heroes is a guide for my players. It combines all of the player options from the original Essential books for players (Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms), as well as some extra features from other various official sources. It is also includes a reference manual with all the basic information to help learn how to play 4e.

This is an important milestone for me. Not only was I able to finish this project for myself, I have learned a lot about using the program it was designed for and how to customize some of the functions and features. To do that, I had to reach out to others for guidance and support. That is something I have not always been very good at doing. I am excited for the prospect of running my favorite edition of D&D once again!

 

[Composer99]

That looks amazing!

 

[Jacob Lewis]

My second module is almost complete (or it is, and I'm not aware of it). I have collected most magic items from the Essentials books, as well as several sources that came afterward. This gives me a large collection of items with more than enough variety and options to carry multiple groups through several campaigns worth of play.

One of the really neat features included in the 4e ruleset for Fantasy Grounds is the ability to create specific types of magic armors and weapons by combining regular items with the magic item template. I just pick up the regular item and drop it directly on the magic item. The program automatically updates the stats and renames the item. For example, you'll notice in the screenshots that "Blessed Armor of Kord +4" becomes "Blessed Warplate Armor of Kord +4", and "Frost Brand Weapon +3" becomes a "Frost Brand Broadsword +3".

I also recreated all the treasure tables from level 1 to 30 for generating random treasure parcels. Even though I prefer the original parcel system first introduced in 4e, I decided to include this method as an alternative for special one-shot games and different styles of play. It was also really fun to create the tables within tables, making it so that I only have to click once and have the program do all the rolls automatically.

At this point, I'm pretty sure I have everything I want for this module. I feel like something is missing, but nothing that would be useful enough to justify the extra effort and keep me from working on the other modules (which most are also nearing completion). And then I'll need to decide on what adventures/campaigns to start prepping for.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Finally! The last 'core' Essential module I needed for myself is finished. The Essential Monster Vault contains every monster from the original MV, plus a few extras that I considered essential to my own campaigns, as well as a few personal favorites. This includes the MM Updates that were featured in Dungeon Magazine, as well as updated versions that appeared in various official adventure modules, products, and magazines. I also threw in some entries from MM3. And, of course, I made certain every monster had its own token (currently 461 tokens were included in the module).

 

[Neonchameleon]

Of course, I don't need everything all at once. Just enough to get things going. But it also gave me a unique opportunity to cultivate, cleanse, and streamline the game for my own purposes. And since I anticipate a number of potential players would be new to 4e anyway, I decided to go with a focus on Essentials for now. (If I do a pre-Essentials/Core option later, I'd build a separate thing for that.)

I've in theory never done this - but I have in practice. Quick assessment:

• Essentials martial classes don't scale properly due to a lack of minor action attacks, immediate action attacks, and multi-attacks. This is in practice pretty much fine at levels 1-10 but breaks at paragon tier.
• The Slayer does exactly what it says on the tin. There's nothing to it and this existing is a good thing (especially with the Elementalist from Heroes of the Elemental Chaos to stand alongside it as the autopilot blast mage)
• The Knight is fine if you want to "bot defender" with little more tactical awareness than "Don't stand in the fire". This is fine.
• The Thief is a gem of a class. You can either play it in lazy mode grabbing Tactical Trick for perma-sneak attack or take the more versatile out of combat tricks and accept the challenge.
• The Scout is a two weapon blender and starts hard and fast out of the gate.
• The Hunter is better written than it appears and should be played as Green Arrow.

No daily powers needed. Rituals still work and work well.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

@Neonchameleon Thanks for the input. Having been looking these over more closely for some time now, I imagine that the martial classes were built deliberately as they were to maintain "easy mode" for certain players. Thus what some perceive as a shortcoming, it might be a feature to others.

I should note that I have since included themes and racial utility powers as a standard feature for my personal house set of Essential games. Theoretically speaking, that should provide some opportunities for players to fill in a few of the weak spots mentioned if so inclined.

Do you have any insights to give regarding Sentinel, Cavalier, Hexblade, Berserker, and Skald?

 

[Neonchameleon]

@Neonchameleon Thanks for the input. Having been looking these over more closely for some time now, I imagine that the martial classes were built deliberately as they were to maintain "easy mode" for certain players. Thus what some perceive as a shortcoming, it might be a feature to others.

It's both - I wasn't happy until the Elementalist joined the crew and it wasn't all "Martials simple, casters complex". Simple is good, a range of complexity is better.

I should note that I have since included themes and racial utility powers as a standard feature for my personal house set of Essential games. Theoretically speaking, that should provide some opportunities for players to fill in a few of the weak spots mentioned if so inclined.

Do you have any insights to give regarding Sentinel, Cavalier, Hexblade, Berserker, and Skald?

Off the top of my head:

• Sentinel: Scaling problems - again works in heroic tier
• Cavalier: Works as long as the DM respects the Defender Aura. Has issues in that the defender punishment is so lightweight (which is also an issue with the PHB Paladin pre-Divine Power)
• Hexblade: Some pacts are better than others but the whole thing works well in heroic. I genuinely like the Gloom Pact from Heroes of Shadow and had a lot of fun with a drow one who used to drop darkness then the screaming started
• Berserker: This is a classic 4e class but with a defender aura. Almost no notes.
• Skald: Someone tried to reinvent the wheel. It's faffier than it needs to be but works.
• Oh and Heroes of Shadow:
  • Assassin: There is a third guild subclass in Dragon. That one is playable; the two in Heroes of Shadow pretty much aren't except in social campaigns where you can get the other uses of poisons. (If you must play one you want a rapier as your main weapon - but rapier plus Attack Finesse as an MBA is still only normal non-striker At Will damage while Assassin's Strike is not that good
  • Blackguard: It's fine at heroic. Heavy armour, shield, striker mechanics is a good brawler start, working as an off-tank (or at least someone the tank doesn't need to protect).
  • Vampire: The scaling is poor but again this is only really a problem if you reach Paragon tier. Campy fun in heroic.
  • Binder: The Binder is a poster-child for how bad the design of Essentials can be; it's a Warlock without the curse, neither more nor less. That said the Gloom Pact due to a two target at will is playable, especially at low level (even by level 7 with three encounter powers your at will is a lot less relevant)
  • Mage: Nethermancer is conceptually good and should be added to 5e (all the necromancy spells except animate dead, plus a few others like black tentacles is a nice thematic collection) and mechanically it's fine. Necromancer is ehhh but fine - good concept, mediocre execution.

 

[Mannahnin]

• Skald: Someone tried to reinvent the wheel. It's faffier than it needs to be but works.
• Oh and Heroes of Shadow:
  • 
    
  • Blackguard: It's fine at heroic. Heavy armour, shield, striker mechanics is a good brawler start, working as an off-tank (or at least someone the tank doesn't need to protect).

I've played a Skald all the way through Heroic and liked it quite a bit. It worked well.

I've played a Blackguard up through Epic and was generally pleased with it.